This time of year I always wonder if WDAVH was scheduled near Halloween because, when you look at the state of what needs to be done to preserve collections, it’s downright scary. Scary like buried alive scary. Scary like scary clown scary. Scary like a sharknado, with sharks carrying chainsaws and guns that shoot knives.

When I was first hired, there was some talk of me eventually helping Josh on some projects, but by June, I wasn’t really expecting much. Based on my audio engineering background I had been working mostly with our boss, Chris Lacinak, on several projects focused on planning for in-house digitization: planning timelines and workflows, budgets for equipment and staffing, generating equipment lists, and even designing digitization lab layouts and wiring diagrams (Yes!). Then, out of the blue, Josh asked me if I’d accompany him on an assessment.

Now is the time. If you think about it, really, the crisis is over. The issued have been identified and sufficiently fretted over. It is time to act to unhide audiovisual collections, to reformat them, and to move ahead with good digital preservation practices in place.

Not to get all eschatological up in here or be a little to precious in my analogy, but this does seem to relate to one of the core conflicts of archiving audiovisual materials. In short, how do we deal with the physical object of media and the content?

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We are all aware of the expectation from the general public that EverythingEver is digitized and available online already. This is of course frustrating because, 1) when presented with the reality there is often a negative reaction from the public, primarily that archives are lazy and behind the times, but also, 2) the perception is ... read more

This time of year I always wonder if WDAVH was scheduled near Halloween because, when you look at the state of what needs to be done to preserve collections, it's downright scary. Scary like buried alive scary. Scary like scary clown scary. Scary like a sharknado, with sharks carrying chainsaws and guns that shoot knives. read more

Obsolescence and Our Relationship with the Material
There are many reasons things end. Many of those reasons are not bad. Change is the nature of existence, the nature of growth. Real archiving and preservation should acknowledge this, sometimes tacitly on the surface but always explicitly in some manner. Conservation. Intervention. Reformatting. Selection. Deaccessioning. Materials come and ... read more

When I was first hired, there was some talk of me eventually helping Josh on some projects, but by June, I wasn’t really expecting much. Based on my audio engineering background I had been working mostly with our boss, Chris Lacinak, on several projects focused on planning for in-house digitization: planning timelines and workflows, budgets for equipment and staffing, generating equipment lists, and even designing digitization lab layouts and wiring diagrams (Yes!). Then, out of the blue, Josh asked me if I’d accompany him on an assessment. read more

Now is the time. If you think about it, really, the crisis is over. The issued have been identified and sufficiently fretted over. It is time to act to unhide audiovisual collections, to reformat them, and to move ahead with good digital preservation practices in place. read more

Not to get all eschatological up in here or be a little to precious in my analogy, but this does seem to relate to one of the core conflicts of archiving audiovisual materials. In short, how do we deal with the physical object of media and the content? read more

Preservation is a resource heavy endeavor. People. Time. Equipment. Infrastructure. Facilities. Space. Training. And, I suppose, some cash-ola.
Collection management is, to a degree, resource management. This is what I have available: How do I balance? Where can I add and where can I cut and still do the most good? (Or as unfortunately can be ... read more